Avoiding and Checking for Plagiarism

Pla•gia•rism (noun) the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2010) states that to “plagiarize” means:

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own

to use (another’s production) without crediting the source

to commit literary theft

to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

I think that the best way to prevent plagiarism is to educate the students how not to plagiarize, then check their work. Consider using the first time that a student plagiarizes as a “teaching moment.;” if there is a second time, then follow campus policies to have the matter examined more closely.

Why do students plagiarize? (plagiarism dot ORG., 2010)

They may not know the proper forms of citation

Inability to determine between paraphrasing and plagiarism

They may mix up their ideas and notes with other sources

They have deep fears about making the grade, which can cloud their judgment

Lack of time-management skills that causes them to wait until the last minute to work on their papers

Not all cultures view plagiarism the same

If you require your students to write a paper for your course, make sure to provide your students with detailed requirements including the paper format (Chicago, APA, MLA, ACS, AAA, and APSA), citation support, and campus policies.

Google http://www.google.com/: Copy/Paste the sentence inside the search box with quotations around it and then search. If it matches you will find links to the web pages that the sentence was extracted from. Then use the browser Find tool to search the page for the sentence.

Testing your Plagiarism Knowledge

How to Recognize Plagiarism: see https://www.indiana.edu/~istd/practice.html This web site can help students and faculty learn more about what constitutes plagiarism. It also provides examples of how to correctly use citations and quotations.